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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

I've been struggling on this for the last days: Evening Song .I started with just the left hand. Then I added the first note of each bar for the right hand. And then finally I got the whole piece down.Party! NEXT !!!

I just got the results of my abrsm grade 1 exam...131 distinction! I can't believe it! The examiner was really really generous but still I am quite proud of myself thumb specially considering I started from nothing 6 months ago and haven't taken any piano lessons (will fix that soon). Now for grade 2 in christmas!!

I really love playing the piano. Just upgraded to a nice digital ydp-s51 and I am loving it even more. When I started I thought I was going to play only a little and had no expectations of getting any grade. I was told you needed to practice 1 hour a day for the grades so that sounded like a lot of time! But I am loving it so much that I managed 1 hour easily and will often play for 2

King Norre - Good job. Sometimes it is hard for a beginner to know how important a simple little piece of music like your Evening Song can be... If you were counting out those dotted quarters properly that skill will be used a thousand times in the future. And those eighths on the upbeat are the beginning foundations for later sycopated passages.

Black Forrest - Welcome to the AOTW thread and congrats on passing with distinction! If you are enthused about piano playing you've landed in the right thread.

My AOTW is managing to have a decent lesson despite a back injury that has me cringing just to sit....the wonders of modern pharmacology got me through. I played the Scriabin Canon well enough that it got a pass...her comment was I will never have trouble with 3 on 2 after this. The MacDowell is coming along nicely and she complimented my voicings. Plus as I was leaving the mother of the young student coming in after me said "that was lovely". Wooohoooo, an audience I didn't know about. Finally, I have a new assignment, the 2nd movement of Mozart's k545 Sonata (I hope we do the whole thing eventually, but I'll take the easier movement first). All in all a good day if I don't move too quickly.

Black forrest, welcome, with two hours a day, you will speed through the first year. Nice you have upgraded your piano too.

JimF, 3 on 2 might be very tricky sometimes, so congrats on that achievement.

My practise on a working day, will be in the morning as I think I'll be too exhausted to concentrate well after working 10 hours. So I need some relaxing quality time before work.

As being cook, I start a bit later than regular jobs do. I found out I have the winner of the best coffee of the country 2012 at a distance less than an half mile away from my house. And my favorite bakery will have his bread ready before I need to go work.

So I will have a quality breakfast then. With an hour piano, fresh bread, a very good coffee, a nice shower. I'm looking forward to make that a habit.

Had a very good lesson yesterday. I recently changed my schedule to twice (or thrice depending) a month for 90 minutes lessons and I think I'm going to like this lesson plan. I finally managed my Bm scale at a whopping 200 bpm YAY! I was stuck at 170 for a week+ Now she assigned the F#m which has some very odd fingering but not to difficult to accomplish, just have to increase the speed yet (currently 100) and of course the usual arps and so forth.

Teacher was pleased with my progress on both the Gershwin piece and CBTSorrento. Says I have "turned a corner" in my playing and reading both which made me feel pretty good. We played a bit with some duet pieces. That's about it but it's all I got.

aTallGuyNH, by left-floating your image you have made the page unmanageably wide. The better choice is "non-floating image". Can you fix it by removing ":left" from the image tag in your post (that is, [img] instead of [img:left]) in your post? Thanks.

aTallGuyNH, by left-floating your image you have made the page unmanageably wide. The better choice is "non-floating image". Can you fix it by removing ":left" from the image tag in your post (that is, [img] instead of [img:left]) in your post? Thanks.

Done.

Better I hope? It all looks the same on my phone.

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"...when you do practice properly, it seems to take no time at all. Just do it right five times or so, and then stop." -- JimF

aTallGuyNH, by left-floating your image you have made the page unmanageably wide. The better choice is "non-floating image". Can you fix it by removing ":left" from the image tag in your post (that is, [img] instead of [img:left]) in your post? Thanks.

Done.

Better I hope? It all looks the same on my phone.

Alas, no, drat. I thought it was the left-float, but it seems to be something native to the image itself, that can only be solved by only linking to the image, instead of including it in your post. And I won't ask you to do that, if no-one else is seeing a problem or is bothered by it.

Congrats all around -- New piano - well, new to you! and think how much fun you'll have making over Mabel! She looks like she's had a bit of a rough time, poor dear. A new set of dentures and a dab of makeup, a bit of tlc, ....she'll be her old self in no time. I bet she's got a great voice!

Great exam results Black Forest - King Norre - nice to see things are coming together.

Jim - take care of that back!!!! My husband has had some really terrible problems - our osteopath has done wonders for him.

FarmGirl - I always like to hear your updates on your busy schedule!

Torquenale - have a fun, safe vacation!!

I have just been focusing on pieces I want to play at the EPP, and they're going well. I've got a nice little collection of duets I'm bringing so we can all take a stab at them. Some are for a higher level player and a lower level player, some are for players of the same level.

I'm also charging up my camera and lots of batteries , I have an ultra light tripod I'll bring too, so it should be easy to make nice steady videos if we want.

_________________________ ABF Recitals 18-44Another thing you learn along the way is that the music will still be there when you are ready for it. There's no reason to rush. JimF

I finally felt like I'd made an achievement with my Grieg piece for the themed recital today! I've been working on getting the fast middle section up to speed and today it actually sounded like musical phrases at half speed rather than a jumble of chords. When I started I felt like it was so fast I'd never get it, so this seems like serious progress to me (or at least something to spur me on for the rest of the week).

Anne, that's a wonderful progress! I haven't even started mine. I'm gonna be in big trouble. I had every intention of learning this piece a month ago but lack of motivation kinda hit me.

My atow this week...after 3 weeks, I finally got a lesson in with my teacher who was pleasantly surprised with my progress on River Flows in You. Just needs a little tweaking. Glad to have her back though. I think not having her to push me certainly put a damper on my motivation to learn. I struggled to learn 1 piece of music and couldn't even get myself to bother with the other 2 I was supposed to work on.

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Adult beginner since January 2013. My only regret is that I didn't learn sooner.

ElleC - from what I've seen I'm sure you won't have a problem! You seem to be a quick study. :-) I felt like I'd never get it done when I started, so now I'm feeling like it's a little more achievable. One of my goals when I picked piano back up was to focus more on really learning skills than on learning pieces in the speediest way possible, but it's hard to adjust.

I played the Scriabin Canon well enough that it got a pass...her comment was I will never have trouble with 3 on 2 after this. ...... Finally, I have a new assignment, the 2nd movement of Mozart's k545 Sonata (I hope we do the whole thing eventually, but I'll take the easier movement first). All in all a good day if I don't move too quickly

Yeah for you Jim! I found a youtube of the Scriabin and just loved it. On my list to want to plays. I have just about finished the K545, Giving it a rest though might work on the rondo a bit more. I think it;s a really pretty piece and enjoyed learning it. Hope you do too.

Anne, Ravel piece, nice. I have never done any of his. Some day! Tallguy-that's a classy looking piano. You will have wonderful time together. What name you did you decide for her? Torq - congrats for your accomplishmentEllec - it's so rare for me to surprise my teacher with my progress. Good for uJim- doing Scriabin piece? Nice.

I'm in the back to basic mode now. I will continue with the assigned pieces but focus more on basic technic starting from the fall semester. The Mozart piece I'm doing (struggling to play well) convinced me I have to do more classical pieces which are not my favorite. I have a feeling that I would hit a wall if I don't address my weakness now. So I will do more of Mozart piece. My teacher agreed with me that Mozart pieces are better for acquiring certain finesse I would like to acquire than Beethoven's for example. So we selected a minor sonata 310 after my trip to SummerKeys

FarmGirl you must be so excited about Summerkeys!!! I am going to work on some Beethoven over the summer too - I am getting back to my Sonatina in G that I had to give up when I had muscle tension problems. Should be easier this time around!!!

Today I gave myself a challenge....given that I'm going to actually be playing for other people this weekend, (and by now you all know what I'm talking about!)....I decided to try to create lots of distractions and work on my focus...So I put a Charlie Parker cd on and while it was playing, I played my pieces. It was pretty weird at first but I was very pleased to see that in a reasonably short time I was able to tune ol' Charlie out and not pay attention or be side-tracked. (Thanks to my husband for the suggestion )

_________________________ ABF Recitals 18-44Another thing you learn along the way is that the music will still be there when you are ready for it. There's no reason to rush. JimF

Everyone is busy, busy, busy accomplishing things!!! Good to hear all of your enthusiasm!

I'm just back from vacation. I actually practiced some on vacation. But, not every day as I had hoped. Hiking, horseback riding, and other fun stuff got in the way.

I'm back home trying to get into the swing of things. Lost a lot of progess on a Tchaikovsky piece I'm working on. So practiced some scales and Hanon to get me motivated. I should do some technique stuff every day. Admit that it's not my favorite.

Just sitting at the piano was my accomplishment this week. Picking back up the Tchaikovsky The Seasons, June. Very pretty piece. Looks easy. But it's giving me the devil of a time in various places. Don't dare to open up the Scubert. The Impromptu is probably back at square one.

FarmGirl you must be so excited about Summerkeys!!! I am going to work on some Beethoven over the summer too - I am getting back to my Sonatina in G that I had to give up when I had muscle tension problems. Should be easier this time around!!!

Today I gave myself a challenge....given that I'm going to actually be playing for other people this weekend, (and by now you all know what I'm talking about!)....I decided to try to create lots of distractions and work on my focus...So I put a Charlie Parker cd on and while it was playing, I played my pieces. It was pretty weird at first but I was very pleased to see that in a reasonably short time I was able to tune ol' Charlie out and not pay attention or be side-tracked. (Thanks to my husband for the suggestion )

That's a good one. Do not record. You are not going to fix anything at this point. Other good idea. Make sure to be able to play under any situation. Play when you just get up. Do not practice first. Play cold and and mark where you had a problem and fix it then. Play when you are hungry. Play when you are sleepy. And most importantly play when you are drunk. Do not forget to mark where you screwed up and fix it. The idea behind is to exhaust all the potential errors before the real thing and fix it. If you cannot fix it completely, think about an alternative how you get back to the place where you can continue. Good luck!

Week 70: Not much of a piano week for me. Construction at my apartment disrupted my practice schedule. Minor hand discomfort and tinnitus made a return trip like comets coming around the sun and were distractions. Dynamobt mentioned Hand-Eze brand arthritis gloves. I bought a similar pair, though mine are no-name, and find them useful. From YouTube Bill Hilton suggests some hand independence exercises. I started a thread about that. I try some of the exercises and for the most part get no where with them. I do notice tension in the left hand when trying to play the melody with the left, and that may have contributed to the hand problems this week.

As usual there has been more than one AOTW but that's just my generally positive nature. Best of all was I have started "Rondo" (part III) from Clementi's Sonantina No 1. I was drawn to it about a month ago and tried some of the fast runs. I say fast they are 16th notes played at 132-140 bpm. I haven't tried anything that fast before and initially this one minute piece had so much technique as yet unlearned I put it away. But I couldn't stay away, as soon as there was an opening for a new piece I began work on it. Surprisingly it is coming together, albeit at a much slower tempo, quite quickly.

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If this life is a simulation can I not be in the easy version where Bach was a drummer

finished all my assignments a few days early and finished up the hardest thing i've taken on thus far! star wars!! haha. i learned a new hand position a new chord and learned the black keys are NOT scary at all! figuring out the fingering for starwars was MEGA fun. can't wait to see what my teacher says about it.

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"Doesn't practicing on the piano suck?!?!""The joy is in the practicing. It's like relationships. Yeah, orgasms are awesome, but you can't make love to someone who you have no relationship with!"

Gee.... I just discovered I can reach over an octave. Couldn't do that before. One octave was the best and I had to do it on the end of the keys. Been playing this one song that requires me to reach an octave. I just tried farther. Did it by one key. Now an octave is no big deal anymore.

I did a song last night in the book. It's just ahead of this weeks lessons. Didn't want to do it. Did me much good to do it. Reminded me of my late Sister at girl scout camp when she was 13. Still have that picture clearly in my mind. It's Kum-by-yah.

My achievement pales totally in front of the EPP folks. So ahh anyway my little achievement is finally brought myself to play against the recording of Piano 2. My part for Mozart 2 piano in D is piano 1. I dreaded for this. I even cleaned the house before played. I hate house cleaning. My teacher recorded the piano 2 part in 9 tracks. Track 1 through 4 was ok. I was able to come back on even if I got off. Track 5 through 9 were struggles. I IM'ed my teacher. I wined, "It's horrible! It's driving me frigging crazy!". She told me to continue even if I have to resort to playing with one hand. She knows that I only have weekend to really practice. Actually I felt a lot better after struggled for a couple of hours with it. The hardest thing is to try it first time. I actually don't know what I was afraid of. Now I can stop practicing and play something for fun.

So I did my Grade 8 exam with Trinity College a week ago. Been working towards it for months, so I was very annoyed with myself when I messed up one of the technical exercises. I held it together mentally for the pieces afterwards though, and for the sight-reading and aural. I left a bit downcast that I had not achieved the Distinction I knew I was capable of. To make it worse I would get my results late as went away for a few days the next day, and Trinity failed to email them. Spent half the holiday ruminating on that fluffed exercise, and wondering if I'd gotten anything else majorly wrong without realising it.

Got back on Friday, with the results waiting on the doormat. Opened them with trepidation, wife standing next to me and... Distinction! Only just - I got 87/100, which is the lowest mark needed, but a Distinction it nonetheless is! I know I could have gotten somewhere in the 90s, but I am still pleased as punch to have made it into the top bracket.

Next up: diplomas! Haven't decided between Trinity and ABRSM yet. For the latter I'd need to get Grade 5 theory done.

So I did my Grade 8 exam with Trinity College a week ago. Been working towards it for months, so I was very annoyed with myself when I messed up one of the technical exercises. I held it together mentally for the pieces afterwards though, and for the sight-reading and aural. I left a bit downcast that I had not achieved the Distinction I knew I was capable of. To make it worse I would get my results late as went away for a few days the next day, and Trinity failed to email them. Spent half the holiday ruminating on that fluffed exercise, and wondering if I'd gotten anything else majorly wrong without realising it.

Got back on Friday, with the results waiting on the doormat. Opened them with trepidation, wife standing next to me and... Distinction! Only just - I got 87/100, which is the lowest mark needed, but a Distinction it nonetheless is! I know I could have gotten somewhere in the 90s, but I am still pleased as punch to have made it into the top bracket.

Next up: diplomas! Haven't decided between Trinity and ABRSM yet. For the latter I'd need to get Grade 5 theory done.

Congratulations, a distinction is a distinction no two ways about it.

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If this life is a simulation can I not be in the easy version where Bach was a drummer